Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Riaan's Evaluation

I have had some e-mails of people wondering what exactly I am concerned about with Riaan . So I thought I would share in detail what his evaluation from an early developmental intervention group.I contacted them because at 2 years old Riaan used few words and mostly just made a few sounds . He was showing frustration due to not being able to communicate.

Scoring was pretty average in adaptive skills, cognative and total motor skills. The concerns were social/emotional and receptive language. His scores for language was at just 11 months and social/emotional was at 16 months. At the time of testing Riaan was 27 months.

What does this mean ?

Well I wish I had more answers myself.The women who came to evaluate him "J" and "R" were both very nice but did show visable concern about some of Riaan's behaviors. I myself wonder why he does some of the things he does (EX. hitting his own head out of frustration, not being able to sit still for a book, being unaware of his own size ).

Here is what I dont know....why in there evaluation they mention his ears being small, if he breaths through his nose while sleeping , why they say" of concern of the evaluators is the amount of sleep that Riaan needs during the day.It was reported that he will take two naps during the day and sleep 10-12 hours a night . A child at his age would be expected to take one nap and sleep through the night ."

To clear it up Riaan doesnt always need two naps a day but will sometimes take two naps to make our evenings more pleasurable with guests being around . If he does not take a second nap he does go to sleep around 7:30pm.On average he does take one 2 hour nap and sleeps 12 hours at night .

What is my concern? The lack of speech, that he struggles to use utensiles, that he seems so frustrated.

After there first visit "R" and a social worker came and talked with us . They provided me with no "real" answers just that we should get his hearing tested, we should see a neurologist and we will start therapy this Thursday.I know they aren't doctors but I really needed something more .

My emotion of this all is Scared. Not angrey, not frustrated , not even sad. I am scared .Scared of what this means for Riaan , what it means for his future, what it means for us and how it will affect our daily life .

These are raw emotions of a 20 something mom who never saw this coming. These are raw emotions of an attachment parenting, cloth diapering, organic eating, non-vaxing 20 something mom who doesnt know what any of this means .